NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—Amid a growing list of scandals including football players being charged with robbing marijuana dealers and their coach allegedly running afoul of academic integrity rules, the Rutgers University football team lost on September 12.

After a decisive victory in their first game of the season, the football team dropped their second game, falling 37-34 to Washington State despite having homefield advantage.

The loss comes one day after the school’s powerful Board of Governors held an emergency meeting to discuss the scandals that appear to be spiraling out of control.

Only three members of the 15 member board showed up for the meeting, with several others participating via telephone.  As we reported, an increasing segment of the powerful board does not live in New Jersey. 

To make matters worse, the team’s top player Leonte Carroo has been suspended from the team following an incident that occurred outside the stadium.  It is not clear if Carroo was arrested, or if he has been charged with a crime.

According to NJ.com’s Dan Duggan, the team’s head coach, Kyle Flood, has suspended Carroo indefinitely after the incident, but declined to give specifics.

Flood is currently facing accusations he emailed a professor of one player regarding his grades, in violation of university policy.  That player turned out to be one of several arrested in connection with an “unprovoked assault” that broke the jaw of a 19-year-old student. 

Meanwhile, the loss comes just three days after yet another player was arrested in conjunction with a string of home invasion robberies from five months prior.

The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office (MCPO) announced that sophomore fullback Lloyd M. Terry Jr. was arrested in New Brunswick on September 9, and has been jailed on $175,000 bail.

That brought the team’s arrest total to six players, and two former players, in September alone.

Wright was charged with armed robbery, armed burglary and conspiracy to commit armed robbery, according to the MCPO release. Former player Tejay Johnson and now-dismissed player Andre Boggs were already arrested on the same charges one week earlier.

According to authorities, Wright was one of three masked athletes who forced their way into a home on Prosper Street on April 26, part of a string of violent crimes that appeared to be motivated by the underground marijuana business.

Others were charged with crimes including one 19-year-old who is believed to be the mastermind of the crimes, and has been charged with drug crimes and other offenses.  That young man, Jianen Chen, is accused of selecting the homes for the football players to invade, perhaps in attempt to eliminate his competition.

According to authorities, football players also participated in armed home invasion robberies of April 27 and May 5.  In each case, the men were allegedly targeting marijuana dealers who they believed would not report the robberies.

An attorney for one of the men suggested the victims should not be believed because they were “drug dealers.”

Prosecutors have indicated that the men sent each other photographs and text messages documenting the robberies.

Curiously, New Brunswick Police Detective Drew Weiss and Detective Gregory Morris of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office took several months to make the arrests.

The MCPO said that the investigation is active and is continuing, and asked anyone with information to call Weiss at (732) 745-5217, or Morris at (732) 745-4054.  

Editor at New Brunswick Today | 732-993-9697 | editor@newbrunswicktoday.com | Website

Charlie is the founder and editor of New Brunswick Today, and the winner of the Awbrey Award for Community-Oriented Local Journalism. He is a proud Rutgers University journalism graduate, a community organizer, and a former independent candidate for mayor of New Brunswick.

Charlie is the founder and editor of New Brunswick Today, and the winner of the Awbrey Award for Community-Oriented Local Journalism. He is a proud Rutgers University journalism graduate, a community organizer, and a former independent candidate for mayor of New Brunswick.